After many years of fruitful collaboration, the United Nations University and the Land Restoration Training Programme are parting ways, along with the other three Training Programmes in Iceland on fisheries, gender equality and geothermal energy. As of 1 January 2020, the four Programmes are a part of the new UNESCO category 2 centre GRÓ - Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainability and Societal Change.

Dear friends. The year 2019 is soon coming to an end and it has certainly been a special year for our Programme. After a long and successful collaboration with the United Nations University, the Land Restoration Training Programme has joined hands with the other three UNU training programmes in Iceland, on Fisheries, Gender Equality and Geothermal Energy, to form GRÓ: the International Centre for Capacity Development - Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Societal Change. The Centre will become a UNESCO Category 2 centre as of 1 January 2020.

UNU-LRT ran its third short course on sustainable land management, land restoration and linkages to climate change, in collaboration with the Ugandan partners: the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and Makerere University. The course took place in Soroti, Eastern Uganda, from 21 to 29 October with 25 participants, six women and 19 men. Read More

Mr. Joel C. Owona, a former fellow from Uganda, completed a Master of Science at the Agricultural University of Iceland on 23 September. He is the first former fellow to complete an MSc degree with a scholarship from UNU-LRT. Mr. Owona attended the six-month training programme in 2008 and came back to Iceland in 2017 to start his MSc studies.